FRUCTIFICATION. 29 



surrounded in a circular manner by leaves larger and dif- 

 ferent in form from those of the stem. These leaves- may 

 be regarded of similar service in protecting the buds en- 

 closed, as the perichfetial leaves — of which mention has been 

 made above — for the young capsule. Those who are in 

 possession of a suitable microscope, and have patience to dis- 

 sect and examine these minute bodies, will, according to the 

 species selected, find one or other of the following objects : — 



1. Minute oblong bodies, of a reticulated or netted tex- 

 ture, and of a rounded form. They are supported on a 

 short footstalk, somewhat resembling the filament of the 

 anther in more perfect j)lants, and from this circumstance, 

 as well as from their discharging a granular pellucid sub- 

 stance resembling some sort of pollen, they have been called 

 ant her id la. 



2. "What have been regarded as female flowers or pistils, 

 are also bodies of a linear or oblong form, swollen at the 

 base, and with the upper portion resembling the style and 

 stigma in flowering plants; they have been named jns- 

 tillidia. 



3. "With these two kinds of bodies are mixed up a 

 number of minute jointed filaments of smaller size and 

 simpler construction, named by Hedwig, who paid much 



